Merged
by mrawgirl09
Summary: The one promise Ed succeeded to keep. The one promise that destroyed him. Homunculus!Al, Pride!Al, Mangaverse, many many spoilers, Pride!Ed at the end. Gift fic for Spirit Alchemist. I don't own. I'm not sure about the second genre.
1. The Merge

**This is a gift fic for the 100th reviewer of my crossover fic, Unusual Arrangement of Harry Potter and Full Metal Alchemist!**

**A challenge, of Homunculus!Al, with which I used my own theory of using Al and a homunculus together! Aheheh... **

**I'm not really sure how it will turn out... Some things just seem too ... ... made up. But, oh well.**

**Will be about ... either a twosome fic, or a threesome, with an epilogue... Yeah, it'll prolly be a three-chap fic.**

**Ah, warnings! Lots and LOTS of warnings!**

**This fic follows the Manga. Not the Anime.**

**This fic follows an event that happened recently in the Manga, so there will be lots and LOTs of spoilers. Actually, it starts with a spoiler, since I took out the scene from the Manga. **

**There might be holes, though I can't see them... right now.**

**It's not really ... Pride!Al ... but it's more like Al!Pride.**

**May be crappy.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"Don't _ever _mock my son," growled Hohenheim, as the great thick mounds of earth wrapped over the two beings in the middle.

"Wha-" Pride didn't have time to react quickly enough, as the mounds started to take shape, covering down at him and sealing him off from sources of light.

"Hohenheim!!!!!" Pride extended one branch of his power, headed straight towards the man, trying to stop him from trapping the sin.

The dome was completed, and Pride, in the darkness, felt his powers retreat into his human form.

"Complete darkness…" Pride hit the wall with his fist. "Damn you, Hohenheim…"

"Hahahah!! All according to plan!" A voice rang through the darkness. Was it the armor? "Now you can't use your powers."

"Is that your voice, Alphonse Elric?" Pride turned around, trying to smell the faint, cool iron and dried blood. "He trapped you too?"

"I hardly think you should be laughing," He snapped, turning back as he found where it was standing. He groped around the wall, trying to find even the smallest of cracks.

None.

"The moment you try to escape, I'll send my shadow out through the crack, and-"

"I never intended to try to escape," interrupted Alphonse, "let's see which one of us is more patient, Selim… My body doesn't require food, water, or even air."

Pride gritted his teeth as it dawned on him that Elric was right. Alphonse plopped down, crossing his legs.

"You and I are going to remain here until the 'Promised Day' passes us by."

"You are forgetting, Alphonse Elric, that I still have my human body," said Pride, turning away from the wall and advancing towards the armor. "I'll wipe off your blood seal."

"You can try, shorty," Pride could hear the clankering of the armor as it rose up again. "I can just stand."

In a matter of seconds, Pride had run up the bent knee of the armor, twisting his body as he entered the hole above, into the metallic body of Alphonse Elric. Putting his thumb right next to the blood seal, Pride smelt the dried blood, somehow, quiver.

"Ah!!" Al's hands went up in panic, trying to get the small body out of his. Having someone in his armor brought up disturbing memories.

"You were saying, youngling?" came the smug retort from right next to his blood seal. Alphonse couldn't believe he'd just do what he'd been reproached innumerably by Izumi: underestimating an opponent. It was always Edward who did that, not him.

"Get off!!" He yelled, trying to put his hands into the hole above his head. The stiff armor joints prevented the arms from going any further than the top few inches.

"Open the wall up!!" came Pride's yell from inside.

"No!!" Alphonse started to run around, trying to shake off the creature. Pride hung onto the edge for dear life, his thumb still next to the seal.

"OPEN IT!!"

"Not until the 'Promised Day' is-!!"

"Damn it-!!"

Alphonse started unclasping the front plate, still running, when Pride lost his grip.

"HaAck!"

The armor fell into a heap, both Pride and Elric screaming and gasping in pain.

"What the hell is this?!" Pride looked down at his hand, where he could only see darkness.

"What the hell did you do?!" Elric started to shake the whole body, trying everything, twisting the arms of the armor in impossible ways to get rid of the Sin at its back. Pride lost his hand again, his fingers brushing the rotting blood. "HaaAAH!!"

"Get OFF!!"

Alphonse started rolling, trying to squish Pride under its steel weight.

"Get OFF me!!"

Pride finally lost all of his grasp, and the he felt- he _smelt_ – his hand wipe off the blood seal.

"HwaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

* * *

Now as this story seems to go to somewhere very… ambiguous, let us look at how this is happening.

Pride, a.k.a. Selim Bradley, is a homunculus. A homunculus is an artificial human that runs with the power of a philosopher's stone as its main power source.

Alphonse Elric is a soul encased in armor, where its mind and soul is affixed on an iron body with the help of the blood seal.

In theory, a human body consists of body, mind and soul.

In theory, without one, none of the others should exist, and in theory, if it _does_ exist, one or two of these components attract the other, but are defective in the end.

The homunculi and Alphonse Elric, however, are something similar to an exception.

The homunculi have bodies. Like Lust, it can be their original body with which they could change it however it suits and fits their power, like Greed. Like Envy and Pride, the body may have yet another original body, in which they may retreat to or spread out from.

They have their own minds, even Gluttony. They are seen to make their own decisions, like Greed, although they usually follow unanimously the orders of their creator – 'Father'.

The only thing they are missing … are the souls. The bodies, implanted with a mind, need a soul to function. In which comes in the philosopher's stone. The philosopher's stone, made from thousands and thousands of souls of human kind, it provides the necessary energy to keep the mind and body together. But since it is the soul of many people put together in a mass of raw energy, and since the artificial soul, unlike when a baby is _born_, does not exactly fit with either the mind or the body. Therefore it is incomplete.

Alphonse Elric, a soul connected with the mind, which Edward Elric sacrificed his right arm to bring back, does not have the body to hold it together with. Connecting the information of the soul with the blood of his sibling, to the iron of the blood and the iron of the armor, Alphonse Elric exists. However, even though faintly, Alphonse's soul recognizes that the blood that connects it with the body is not the original body's blood, and that it's already dead. Dried.

And since Alphonse Elric's body is at the gate, the soul and mind searches for a vacant body most similar to its own.

Alphonse Elric's body, when taken away, was around ten. About five years have passed.

Selim Bradley, Pride's container and root, remains at the age around twelve.

Alphonse Elric has a soul and a mind, but not a body.

Pride has a body and mind, but no soul.

The two mass of energy attracts each other, but the reaction only took place when there was a physical contact.

Not when Lust snapped the seal of the Elder Brother of prisoner 48, in which she used her elongated finger.

Not when Pride took control of Alphonse's armored body with his shadows by covering the seal.

Now, when Pride's human body, its original body where the shadow emanates and retreats to, has made contact with the blood seal in a primary contact.

It processed a human… with a homunculus' body… and two minds.

* * *

Neither the sin nor the sinner knew how much time had passed.

"Gah!! UAAAH!!" Alphonse woke up, the still darkness around him almost accentuating his fear. He felt around the area, but all he could feel were the cold surfaces of his armor.

"What-Huwah!" Alphonse jerked in surprise as the other voice suddenly appeared. "The Hell happened?!"

Alphonse looked around, then smacked his head for being an idiot.

No light.

No way to see.

He tried touching around, since that was about all his unfeeling armor could…

Since when could he feel the inside of his armor?

Actually, since when-

"Argh!!" came Pride's voice … from somewhere. "What the hell?! Why am I moving?!"

Alphonse was momentarily confused where he was hearing the voice, when it dawned on him.

"PRIDE?!" he yelled, his voice ringing in the armor. "What are you doing in my body?!"

Al felt a stab in his head. So he _was_ there.

"Speak for yourself!!" yelled Pride, his voice ringing in the darkness within his mind. "YOU are in MY body!!"

Alphonse had yet another epiphany. He was in a body! He could _feel_ things. The cold armor, the wet patches in the dirt…

"What-what happened?!"

* * *

After a few rounds of changing control (more like Alphonse taking and giving away the control) of the body, Alphonse found out that he was, indeed, in the same body as Pride, with the same hair, same cold skin, same facial features… as Selim Bradley.

"It seems we've… merged…?" suggested Pride, scowling as Alphonse took control once again.

"This doesn't make any sense!!" yelled Alphonse into the darkness. He looked back in his mind, at Pride, who was brooding, sitting in a self-made corner. "You're not the only homunculus that touched me before!!"

Alphonse allowed the body to sleep, before stomping around his mind, searching the file cabinets that he made appear spontaneously, looking, _searching_ for an answer from his memory.

"You even touched my blood seal before!!!" Al yelled, throwing another 'file' on what he knew on Human Alchemy onto the 'pile'. "Why now?!"

"Don't ask me!! I don't know!!" Pride was sitting just a few ways away, clutching at his head. Even in mind Pride seemed to look like Selim, either by his effect of never seeing Pride's real form, or because of Pride's own preference and influence on Al's mind.

Al scowled, got 'up', and 'kicked' the 'pile' of knowledge 'in front' of him in frustration. "You lived for more than centuries; you can't _not_ know these things!!"

"Will you shut _up_?!"

"_You_ shut up!!"

"I need to _think_, damn it!!"

"I can _not_ believe-!!"

"Al!!"

Alphonse's mind quickly dove for the body's control, waking it and making it crawl to the nearest wall.

Edward's voice. How long since he'd last heard?

"Alphonse!! I know it's after the Promised Day, but-!!"

Had it really been that long?

"Brother?!" Al yelled, hitting the earthen wall with his … Selim's, small fists. "Ed?"

"I'm going to come back later," said the faint voice of Ed, Al dimly realized that Ed must be using a microphone of sorts if he could hear his brother through such thick walls. "I can't talk for long, the homunculi are _angry_!!"

The homunculi are still there? Wait, out _there_?! "Brother, wait!!"

"I don't like leaving you here like this, but-ARGH!!"

"ED?!" Al's… Selim's fists pounded for all it's worth on the walls. "Ed!!!"

It felt like he was hitting the floor. Changing tactics, Alphonse started clawing the wall. Never mind that he and his father had designed it to withstand a child's scraping.

"Damn it-ah!!" He felt his wounds – broken fingernails – get fixed alchemically, momentarily lightening up the dark dome. He faintly saw the crumpled armor, where it was just… _there_, like a random object out of a horror movie.

"It would be easier of you transmuted a hole in it," said Pride from his mind.

"So you'll escape? Never!"

"You have the control of the body," Pride shrugged, "I can only do so much."

"I've seen Greed and Ling," snapped Alphonse, forgetting for a moment that he could, at any time, take back control without much difficulty. "You could just seep out any time! You just want out of here!! We're not leaving before everything is over!!"

"Damn it…" Pride bristled. "your brother could be in danger!"

Al was too focused on clawing at the wall to fall for it at that point. "He better not!"

"Argh! Damn it, _human_!" Pride yelled, and 'jumped' over at Alphonse, hands outstretched to strangle the other ego. "Give me that!"

Selim's body crumpled down as two minds controlled over the body.

"You might have the power to control the shadows," said Alphonse, sending 'a kick' at Pride's face, throwing 'the boy' onto the far side, where he made appear a cage to lock it in. "But in my mind, where there's no real source of light, you're just Selim Bradley."

"When we get out of here…" Pride turned from Selim to a mass or shadows and back to Selim, obviously unsettled by the fact that he was caged in like an animal.

Alphonse glared at the sin, then let the body return to digging. "Who says I'm going to let you have control?"

* * *

After a while – an hour, minutes, days, whatever – when Alphonse was on the verge of giving up, he heard Ed's voice once again.

"Alphonse?" It was tired, tight with pain, but to Alphonse it showed that Edward indeed came back when everything was over. Right after everything had ended. Safely.

"Ed?" Al asked tentatively. "Is that you?"

"Yeah… it's… they're all gone now…" Al could almost hear Edward gasp in pain. "I need to get you out-"

Alphonse blanched. If Edward saw him like this-

"Don't! Pride-"

"Don't worry, I have a flash bang."

"No, I mean-"

The wall exploded with a bang, and before Al could react, a blinding flash exploded. Instinctively closing his eyes, Alphonse only felt a stab at the back of his neck, making him kneel and fall slowly into unconsciousness (Pride wanted to take control as he did but fell unconscious with him).

Before his vision dimmed, he sorely saw the light fading, and blue military soldiers running into the dome, where Ed's uncertain… worried… _scared_ voice rang out.

"Al? Alphonse?"

Everything went black.

* * *

**... One.**

**Mrawgirl09**


	2. The Plan

**I don't own.**

* * *

When Alphonse came to it was black.

"What-"

Before he could even finish the word, Alphonse felt something hit his right cheek.

Something hard.

Hard enough to rip right through his jaw to the other side. He felt the blood splatter,

"Hack!"

Alchemy buzzed, and Alphonse momentarily saw his environment… a windowless room, with only two chairs and a door at one side.

"You killed him!!" Al's eyes immediately recognized the voice.

"Gah!!" Ed's face passed by in a flash as Alphonse felt the body slam down onto the concrete, breaking quite a few bones.

Every break, every spill, Alphonse could feel the damage and repair.

It hurt, at first, but the pain was gone the next second as the stone started to work.

Was this how every homunculi felt when they died multiple times?

Edward didn't give Alphonse time to react. Another hit, this time something sharp, stabbed through the middle.

"You killed Alphonse!!"

"Wait-Hagh!!"

A hole through the face.

"You destroyed his blood seal!!"

A hole through the heart.

"I'll KILL you!!"

Alphonse had to find a way to talk to Edward, before the philosopher's stone that powered the body was used up.

"Damn it, Brother!!"

The buzzing Human Alchemy showed Ed's face again.

Alphonse would have gasped if it didn't lose him precious time he didn't have.

Edward's face was contorted in anger, so much that Al would not have thought it was his brother if not for the voice. Al had never seen Edward angered so much. This was pure craziness, lunacy.

"Don't call me that!!" Blood spattered over Ed's face.

Alphonse, trying to recover from losing one eye from the punch, cried out again. "Wait!! Agh!!" Alphonse hit a wall.

"Edward Hohenheim Elric!!!"

The rain of punches, kicks and stabs stopped.

"Wha…"

Trying to stare at Edward through the dim light of alchemy, Alphonse remained still.

"Ed!! I'm Alphonse!!"

Ed shook his head.

"No-Al-Al's blood seal-"

"I'm Alphonse Trisha Elric!!" Edward gasped audibly.

It was wrong, both knew it. Alphonse didn't have a middle name.

But it was one that he and Ed had made up when they were little, when they were making fun of Edward's middle name.

"Please!! Just listen to me! Before Pride takes me over!"

"Ah… uh…" Ed's voice cracked. It was obvious he was trying not to break down. "No- it can't…Al… he…"

"Ed, _please_," Alphonse prayed, _prayed_ to a _god_ that Edward would hear him. "Just listen to me…"

Edward nodded, then realizing that Al… the other … thing couldn't, voiced his approval.

"Could you turn on the lights? Please?" asked the young voice. It was so… similar to Al's. It was so… tempting to believe him.

"How do I know you're not going to kill me outright?" Edward asked, groping his way to the light switch.

"I swear on Nina's death."

The light went on.

There was a shuffle from the outside.

"I have flash bangs," grumbled Edward, "if this is a trick, you will die before your shadows reach me."

Alphonse ignored the snort Pride let out in his mind.

"Thank-EeAARGH!!"

The scream was bloody, murderous.

Fire burnt through every part of the body, blinding Alphonse and Pride in pain. They could dimly hear Edward shout at someone at the dark corridor outside, but then the fire became stronger.

"What are you doing, Fullmetal, you said he uses shadows-" Mustang glanced sideways, gasped, and turned back towards the sin.

"I thought you –"

Interrogating? What was he thinking … Of course Ed would lose control.

"Damn it, and you told me _I_ was out of it that time." *****

"You _were_…" Ed muttered, pulling Mustang's outstretched hand down, "then."

Alphonse felt the body flop onto the floor, the smoke rising and covering the ceiling as it searched for a way out.

"Get out, we're fine,"

Mustang didn't move. "No."

"Get _out,_ Bastard!"

"I'm not letting you kill it in revenge!" Mustang shouted, slamming the door. "You stopped it from me, I'm not letting you walk the same road!"

Mustang almost killed in revenge?

"Leave!!"

Alphonse, having been restored to normalcy somewhat, slowly rose up, leaning onto the bloodied wall for support.

"Please, sir… leave us for awhile…"

Mustang merely looked at him in disgust. It hurt.

"You don't have the right to speak, _Pride_."

His heart hurt.

"I'll need to hear this from him anyways," Mustang leant against the door, and gestured Alphonse-Pride-Selim to sit on a stool. "I stay."

Edward glared at the man, but took a seat, motioning Alphonse – Pride to sit as well. "Idiot Bastard."

"Stubborn Pipsqueak."

"Talk," said Edward, crossing his leg, wiping the blood on his face and ending up smudging it further.

Alphonse sat down like he usually did: back straight, legs 90 degrees, fists on knees, facing straight forward. The other two seemed to notice.

"How do I say this…" Alphonse re-organized his thoughts briefly. "I am Alphonse, and I am Pride… as well."

Silence fell.

Just when Alphonse felt uncomfortable in the silence, Mustang stepped forward, Edward clapped and placed his hands onto the floor.

Another stool appeared.

Mustang calmly nodded his thanks, to which Ed ignored, and sat down on the stool.

"Start from the beginning, when you two were first trapped."

* * *

By the time Alphonse had finished his story, the room was transmuted back to its original shape, with four windows and a hole in the ceiling to let the smoke out.

Edward was leaning on his knees, hands holding his head as he tried to process the information. Mustang sat between Al and Ed, gently massaging his head as he tried to get his voice box to work.

"Damn it… This is shit load of…"

Alphonse shrunk back. "I'm sorry…"

Mustang smiled at him. "Don't be… how did it happen?"

"… I don't know…"

Edward lifted his head, looking at Alphonse- no Selim- no Pride – Alphonse in the eyes. It wasn't angry anymore, but it was almost… sad… relieved?

"Can you get Pride for us, Alphonse?"

"No," Al shook his head, "if I let go of the control, he'll kill you guys."

"Can you ask him about-?"

"We talked about it as well, he… doesn't know."

Both Mustang and Edward sighed.

Al then realized that for the first time, Ed and Roy were not … fighting each other.

Did something happen while he was in the dome?

"This is getting _really_ complicated…"

* * *

Alphonse had at last come out of the room. People were staring, mainly Roy's crew, who knew/know that Selim Bradley was/is a homunculus.

Alphonse kept fidgeting as he walked next to his battered brother.

He didn't notice it before – when he was being beaten – but Edward had his left arm in a sling, bandages around his head going several times over his left eye, a light limp and black and blue bruises covering most of his face and neck.

"I'm sorry… brother…"

"It's… alright." … and the wheeze. Edward must have some broken ribs. Or a concussion.

Alphonse remembered to keep his face neutral when Edward turned to him and smiled.

"So, how do you like it having a body?"

Alphonse smiled as well. "It's … not all that different from a suit of armor, really."

"I don't feel pain, and I don't feel tired," he said, as they reached Roy's new office – the Fuhrer's office - "but I do feel things when I touch them and… and I guess I don't die of hunger, but I'd like to have some of Winry's apple pie."

The brothers laughed. Alphonse fell silent for a second, and smiled… grinned wickedly at Edward.

"Pride told me to tell you: 'I hope you don't mind having two little brothers, Mr. Small-Metal Alchemist'."

"Don't make me hit you."

Al laughed. "You can't hit me, I'm your brother!"

"He's right, Fullmetal," smirked Roy from the other side of his desk, still signing away.

"Damn it!!"

* * *

Alphonse was surely enjoying the little time they were having together as brothers; even though the body wasn't his, it gave him a little hope of returning to his own.

Of course, a little investigation of why exactly he was in this body would come first, to understand and prepare the process of eliminating the Sin.

Pride muttered something incoherent on the other side of his mind.

"So you see- the others haven't touched your blood seal _themselves_, you know?"

Alphonse felt like he should feel skeptical. "But Lust- she used her nails-"

"That was with her power, right?" exclaimed Edwrd, his eyes shining and jumping from the text, Alphonse, then the air as he remembered events of the past. "I mean, Pride touched you with the shadows, didn't he?"

"I guess," shrugged Al. He still didn't really get it, but it would come in due time. "So, how are we going to get our bodies back?"

Edward sobered up.

"I got a piece of leftover Philosopher's Stone, I didn't know if it would be enough to get your body and my limbs," said Ed, watching Al's eyes widen. "So I was just thinking of forgetting mine, and just giving back yours for the moment."

"But Brother-!!"

"But now you have one in yourself, containing the Sin Pride in you as well," smiled Ed.

Alphonse knew that the intent was killing was there, though not explicitly, and the intent was not directed at him, but he couldn't help but feel… threatened.

"So if we use that stone-"

"But then that would kill Pride, won't it?"

Ed's smiled faded. "What are you talking about, Al?" he asked, "you're not actually thinking of-"

"But he said-"

"He's a homunculus!" Ed shouted, startling Alphonse. "He may have sentiments, he might have feelings, like Mustang had said about Lust, but he was one of those creatures that look at humans as numbers, resources and worthless!"

"But…But still… That was when the Sins had a reason to-"

"They've done it for years, for centuries!! They've _destroyed_ Xerxes!!"

"I really don't want to have to kill him!" Alphonse exclaimed, jumping up from his seat. "Not while we're in the same body!"

"Al…"

"Can't you somehow at least get me out of here before you decide to kill him?" Alphonse felt his eyes water from frustration.

"So it doesn't feel like you want to kill _me_?"

He felt annoyed, as when he was an armor, he didn't have to worry about crying in important moments.

Not that he wanted to go back to that body, no.

Edward stood up gently, walked towards Al and wrapped his arms – arm – around his brother. "… Alright… I'll… we'll see about getting another body for you, Al."

"I'm … I'm sorry, Ed…"

The elder Elric made soothing noises as he rubbed his brother's back. "Shh, it's alright, I promise we'll find a way to get you your body back before we kill Pride."

"And your limbs," reminded Al, sniffing against Ed's shoulders. Stupid tears seemed to flow at most unexpected moments.

Edward smiled, and ruffled Al's hair. "And my limbs."

As Edward left the room, bending down momentarily to pick up notes from their previous discussion, reading them as he went.

"I'm… Sorry, Brother," muttered Al, lowering his eyes.

Edward shouted from the hallway. "Don't be, you're just too kind, is all."

Had he heard?

Alphonse followed Edward out to the living room, where he and Ed started having a discussion on how to deal with the now even more complicating transmutation.

"I hope you didn't forget I was here, listening to you two." Pride murmured in his cage, back in the edge of Selim's mind. "Don't think I'll thank you."

"I won't," scowled Alphonse, turning 'away' from the Sin and concentrating on solving the equation in front of he and his brother, "we'll still have to destroy you."

"Not if I have a say about it."

Alphonse put down the paper and picked up another.

"You don't."

* * *

Another dark room, Al sighed. It was pitch black, but he knew that right under him, there was a gigantic circle, which will get Pride … no, which will get_ him_ out of Pride's body.

It almost felt unfair for _him_ to have to be run out of a body… again.

Edward bumped into something somewhere nearby, cursing as it hit the floor with a crash.

From another part of the room, Ling chuckled.

Ed had asked – yes, _asked_, not threatened – Ling, the new Chosen Heir of the Emperor of Xing, to supervise the homunculus in the pitch dark room where they will be having the final human transmutation. Roy Mustang and his crew were to be guarding the outer walls, just so that no one would penetrate it unless it was opened up from the inside.

"You ready, Al?" Edward sat down at the edge of the circle, where he'd marked with a small protrusion of a wall. "This circle will first get you a new body… and it will simultaneously get rid of Pride and Selim Bradley."

Alphonse remained quiet.

"As soon as I'm out of here, I will _kill_ you all," said Pride, growling at the back of Al's' mind.

"Not if Ranfan and Ling kill you first," whispered Al.

"Right…" Alphonse steadied himself in the middle, unconsciously stopping his breath as he waited for the transmutation to start-  
_Clap_

The second Ed's hands met the outer circle the runes shone bright red, illuminating the room – a somewhat empty laboratory – in a deadly crimson.

And the pain started.

* * *

"HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

Alphonse was blind, the world was white. He felt himself being pulled away by force from the body of Selim Bradley.

Another body formed simultaneously, growing skeletons and muscles, organs and fats – and then blond hair.

The body came alive, where it writhed, its mouth screaming silently in pain as its voice chord formed.

Edward was concentrating on making Al's body as perfect – as much as he remembered and as near as what he would expect Alphonse to look like at his age - as he could that he didn't see Pride crawl over to him and grab his wrists. "What-!" Edward's left hand was bitten by a shadow. "GHRAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

"I'm NOT GOing aLOne, AlcheMIst!!!"

The room's darkness turned into Pride's shadows as the light from the transmutation gave it a source to live. Alphonse, although he was _still_ forming, reached out and grabbed Pride's ankle, stopping it from going out of the transmutation.

"Let GO OF MY BROTHER!!!"

Edward gasped – his metal arm was being shredded to pieces.

Pride was making him take his hands off. He couldn't – Al was still - "DON'T!! THE TRANSMUTAT-" Ed screamed as the light turned a darker shade of red. "THE TRANSMUTATION ISN'T-"

Pride was about to gauge out Ed's eye when he managed to lift Ed's left hand.

Edward only had the amount of time to yell "ISN'T OVER!!" when the circle exploded with power, clouding everything – not that there was anything to see now that the light turned dark – with thick black smoke.

"Young Master!" shouted Ranfan, desperately trying to feel for the Sin – somewhere in the mess.

Ling couldn't sense the ki right, no when the transmutation went wrong and merged all three person's ki's into one big explosion.

"Damn it, I can't sense which is which!!"

The prince and his guard had to stay out of the circle overall, as they knew, by instinct, that interfering with the transmutation at that time would mean suicide.

Another explosion boomed, shaking the whole building.

* * *

Mustang had to avoid 4 cartridges of bullets to keep his men (and woman) from entering the room.

* * *

*** By _that_ time, I mean (SPOILERSPOILERSPOILER) _that_ time when Roy Mustang found out that Envy was the culprit for Hughes' death.**

**... Two.**

**Mrawgirl09**


	3. The End

**The last chapter. Or should I say, Conclusion.**

* * *

The room was filled with smoke, alchemy buzzing around as Ling and Ranfan searched the void for the brothers and the sin with their mind's.

"Master!" Shouted Ranfan. "They-!!"

Ling did not hear. He searched every corner, every nook and cranny where the sin could be hiding. "The… ki… of the Homunculus… is gone?!"

The simplicity of it; neither Ling nor Ranfan would have believed it if they hadn't seen it happen with their own eyes.

"Brot-" coughed a young voice in the middle of the room. "Brother?"

"Alphonse Elric!" Alphonse felt a grip on his right arm, whose he supposed was Ranfan. "Are you alright?!" Or more correctly Ling.

He tried to stand, his _own _body surprisingly _abnormal_ to him even though he had spent more than a few months in Pride's young body. After having to lean onto Ling to stand up, Alphonse suddenly realized that Edward, for the whole ordeal after the transmutation burst, didn't speak a word.

"Brother-Ed-" Alphonse yelled desperately. The last he'd seen was over a dissolving Pride, Ed's eyes becoming wider and wider as his hand was taken off from the sigil. "Ed! Are you alright?! Ed!"

"Edward?" Shouted Ling, still supporting Al. "Are you still there?"

Silence continued, and Al, Ling and Ranfan were starting to get seriously worried when somewhere along the walls of the room, a shuffle was heard.

"I'm- I'm good-!" Ed croaked. "I- I'm alive?"

The Xing's heir couldn't help but laugh in relief and the absurdity of the question. "Of course you're alive!" After all, it wasn't Ed's body they were thinking of transmuting.

Ling felt Alphonse slouch further, visibly relaxing after confirmation that Edward was _alive_ and fully healthy as well.

"We did it, brother!! We did it!!"

"Where's -" said Ed's voice, cracking as he wheezed uncomfortably through the smoke, "where's-?"

Ranfan, after switching on the light, found her way to the other boy and held him up before Ed fell onto the broken pieces of glasses.

"There is no ki of the Homunculus anymore; the body is gone as well."

"Good… riddance…" said Ed. "And what… a gain."

"Ed?" Alphonse was confused.

Edward wouldn't talk about a sacrifice like that. Not even a sin's. Not after what he'd heard from Mustang.

A dry laugh sounded from Ed's mouth. "You got your body back! And I got … limbs, _new_ limbs …"

Suddenly, Ranfan jumped back in alarm.

Edward flopped onto the floor, grunting as glass shards pierced through his skin and dug through his muscles. "Uh! Ah! Ranfan?! What the- there are _glass_ pieces here!!"

"Ed!!" Alphonse stepped forward, his hands outstretched for his brother in alarm. "Umph!"

He was pulled back.

"Ling?" The prince didn't move. His grip was hard, too hard for Al's liking, and sweaty. It was rigid, and his skin suddenly felt cold. Looking up, the younger Elric could see

"Don't … move."

Ed's grumbling stopped, and full silence reigned the room. Ranfan hadn't moved, her posture tense but not in defense, as if she didn't know how to react.

Ed's face lifted up, and Alphonse gasped when he saw the golden eyes frown at him with an unnatural scowl.

"Hah? And I thought the Xingians couldn't smell me any more?"

"No…" Alphonse couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it.

_Pride_.

Edward was gone.

"What-!" Al tried once again to run towards his brother, struggling against Ling, who was holding him back. "How?!!"

"Honestly, I don't know," the Sin shrugged, "and I don't care."

He started laughing evilly, and Alphonse was fully disturbed. Edward didn't do those kinds of things- he didn't smirk like that, he didn't cackle like that, and he certainly didn't _stand_ like that. Pride was using his brother's body _wrong_.

Pride opened his arms, smirking. "I'll kill you all here!!"

"Watch out!!" Ling flinched and Ranfan shot a throwing knife at the light switch.

She threw it with her right hand. Her automail hand.

She missed.

Nothing happened.

There were no shadows ripping the three apart, no freakish eyes staring from dark corners, no teeth biting any of the humans in the room.

"What…" Al's voice cracked. "What going on?! Why isn't it working?!"

Ranfan growled and jumped to kick at the frustrated blonde.

Pride saw it coming. "Grah!! If my powers don't work anymore, I'll use Alchemy!!"

_Clap_

_Slam_

Pride – in Ed's body – was flown into the wall behind him, denting it and splattering it with fresh blood.

"Why doesn't it _work?!_"

Alphonse was watching the whole proceedings with eyes wide, his mind trying to process what was happening instead of wailing 'Brother died' repeatedly.

"Ed's… mind… and Pride's body is … gone…" he whispered, finally understanding what had just happened. Pride he knew didn't have that strong of an emotion – it was Ed's soul Pride was using. "Your body had the power, and you live by your mind… you don't have Ed's knowledge of Truth! You can't work alchemy!!"

Pride paled, and looking around, he started to run towards the exit. "No-!! Umph!"

He fell.

"Haaah-!!"

The Sin tried to get up, but collapsed again, finally noticing that his right arm was an unhealthy grey, withered up. Rolling away from Ranfan's knife, Pride checked the leg as well. Identical dried wood of a leg showed.

"The new limbs have been in the gate for so long…" explained Alphonse, still in the process of understanding himself, "it doesn't work anymore…"

Pride looked at the brother. "But you-!!"

"The things Edward ate… it didn't get to his body at the gate… it went to feed mine," Al's eyes widened in full comprehension, "your new limbs are _dead_."

Pride howled in frustration. "Graaaah!! Worthless body!!"

He escaped another kick to his – Ed's gut, and squatting down, plucked out a _large_ piece of glass from his dead leg's shin, uncaring as the sharp edge dug into the hand.

"No!! Stop!!"

The red-stained glass was trembling in front of Ed's throat. "Damn it… for all the things I've done so far… _this_… is not worth it."

Alphonse struggled against Ling again. "No!! Stop!! You'll disappear-!!"

"I'll disappear," Pride smirked, "but it would be worth it to see you suffer."

Alphonse was about to scream bloody murder, to beg for the Sin to not, when Ranfan's black boot slammed the bleeding hand, kicking the glass shard far away.

"Not until we find a way to get Elric back, homunculus," growled Ranfan.

Pride growled, but soon smirked.

"You think I need tools to kill this body?"

With amazing dexterity, Pride flipped backwards, heading for the furthest corner in the room.

When he got there, he leant back into the corner, still smirking, and raised his arm towards his mouth.

Edward-no _Pride _then bit his wrist.

_Rrrrip_

Ed's vein was ripped out of the body.

_Rrrip_

Ed's other vein ripped out of the body.

"Brother!!"

Blood poured out of Ed, almost infinitely.

Pride laughed, reached the shaking hands to his neck.

Ling and Ranfan were already out of their stupor, throwing themselves onto Ed's body, when Pride twisted his hands.

_Crrack_

Ed's golden eyes dimmed to yellow.

Ed's arms fell.

Pride took Edward to the Gate.

* * *

**... End.**

**Mrawgirl09**


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